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4 Jony Ive Quotes: Design, Product, and Function

Jony Ive is the inspirational designer and thought leader behind nearly every product at Apple. His focus has literally changed how we all live. That started with the Mac then the iPod and then the iPhone. Here are 4 quotes to understand his sense of skill and purpose:

1. On his goals as a designer

"I think that we’re on a path that is the same as the one that Apple was on in the seventies, which is trying make technology more approachable and personal. If people are saying they felt ostracized by and struggled to use the technology, then we failed.
What I know is our intent has remained the same and is consistent, which is to try to take what is remarkable tech in terms of its capability and utility and make it more and more personal."

2. Values and lessons learned working at Apple

"One of the values of things I learned absolutely directly from Steve Jobs was the whole issue of focus. What are we focusing on: focus on product. I wish I could do a better job in communicating this truth here, which is when you really are focused on the product, that’s not a platitude. When that truly is your reason for coming into the studio, is just to try to make the very best product you can, when that is exclusive of everything else, it’s remarkable how insignificant or unimportant a lot of other stuff becomes. Titles or organizational structures, that’s not the lens through which we see our peers."

3. What design means; it's purpose

"What we make testifies who we are. People can sense care and can sense carelessness. This relates to respect for each other and carelessness is personally offensive."

4. The secret behind simplicity is that it's misunderstood

"Simplicity is not the absence of clutter, that's a consequence of simplicity. Simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and product. The absence of clutter is just a clutter-free product. That's not simple."